Seidokai, Kyokushin, Goju-ryu or Jujitsu?

In my city I can choose from four different martial arts; Seidokai, Kyokushin, Goju-ryu and Jujitsu. I'll be moving soon and when I do I want to start a martial art, I was thinking a form of soft kung-fu.

But that's still a few months ago and I would really like to start training first, just to test the waters. So I'd like to pick a form available here to do for the next few months.

Can anyone tell me, out of Seidokaikan, Kyokushin, Goju-ryu and Japanese Jujitsu -

Which ones are the closest in similarity to Chinese Kung Fu?
Which ones are the hardest/softest?
Which ones are focused more on Kata?
Which ones are better for shorter people (ie. close combat, not reliant on long reach)?

Now for the lame question that I'm afraid to ask; Do any have 'feats of strength' such as Qi Gong in Shaolin, breaking bricks etc?
or flashy moves, like the jumps and flips of Wushu?

I can't speak from experience but at a guess I would say either Goju-Ryu or Seidokaikan. Kyokushin's lineage appears to be built on a foundation of Goju-Ryu, Shotokan, Judo, Aiki Jujitsu, Chakuriki Chinese Fist and Kenji Sawai. I'm only going on a graph that I have read.

In my city I can choose from four different martial arts; Seidokai, Kyokushin, Goju-ryu and Jujitsu. I'll be moving soon and when I do I want to start a martial art, I was thinking a form of soft kung-fu.

Those styles you mentioned (the karate forms et least) are quite different from what you actually want to train.

But that's still a few months ago and I would really like to start training first, just to test the waters. So I'd like to pick a form available here to do for the next few months.

Can anyone tell me, out of Seidokaikan, Kyokushin, Goju-ryu and Japanese Jujitsu -

Which ones are the closest in similarity to Chinese Kung Fu?

I'd say goju ryu; however, it depends on lineage (okinawan much more than japanese (gojukai, Gogen Yamaguchi line, and its offsprings)

Which ones are the hardest/softest?

hardest: the full contact ones
in between: goju ryu (depends all on the organisation)
" softest": japanese jujutsu (note: that's an umbrella term for a very wide array of different styles and approaches)

Which ones are focused more on Kata?

Full contact karate: not much

Goju: a lot.

Which ones are better for shorter people (ie. close combat, not reliant on long reach)?

If you are short, you're just fucked. Like me. Learn to deal with that -> fighting strategies that favour your build, instead of trying to pick a style that fits your requirements.

Now for the lame question that I'm afraid to ask; Do any have 'feats of strength' such as Qi Gong in Shaolin, breaking bricks etc?

Boards don't hit back, noob. If you are interested in tameshiwari: kyokushin I would say

Kyokushin and Seidokaikan both fight under full contact rulesets. Goju HAS a full contact ruleset, but I have no idea what that entails of how much it is used. There's other users who can help you more with that. Aside from some board breaking, none of these three styles is likely to have any magic tricks or gimmicks other than possibly actually TEACHING YOU HOW TO FIGHT AND WIN.

As for the Japanese Jujitsu, there's no way for any of us to tell. JJJ varies massively in style and quality from school to school.

But here's my question to you: Why do you want to train "Chinese Kung Fu" so badly? You're in an area with at least couplel karate schools that are likely quite good due to hard sparring and alive training where you'd learn how to fight and win. Is it because of the the wirework in the old movies? If so, that's OK. Most of us here have been there at one point or another, but make sure that all your training goals coincide as well as possible in a real, verifiable way.

If you are looking for an as chinese as possible karate style, you might try okinawan uechi ryu karate / pangai noon.

If you're interested in kata, go ahead, if you like fighting/sparring better, and kata not as much: go for the full contact ones.

The sparring in goju varies widely: i've seen very good and very pathetic examples, it all depends on the organisation one is with, and within those organisations, it sometimes even matters what dojo you're training.

All i can suggest is go along to each school,see which one you like the most and
train there.By just relying on the general style of each is to difficult as each individual school will teach differently.

Japanese Jujitsu is something I only heard of but haven't seen. It's not standup so I do not think it is what you may be looking for.

Kyokushin and Seidokaikan are really good for learning to fight stand up. Seidokaikan does little kata and kyokushin does just a bit less kata than Goju. Since I do Goju, I just want to say that Goju schools vary greatly, even within organizations. My Meibukan dojo starts us off with point sparring and once we develope a base for technique, we move onto full contact (irikumi go) sparring where anything goes. Most dojos within the Meibukan organization do not do that. If you are looking for a tournament fighting style go with Seidokaikan. If you want a bit more kata and bunkai, go with kyokushin. If you want a lot of kata and bunkai analysis with irikumi (if the curriculum of the Goju school has it, go with that dojo.

Kyokushin and Seidokaikan should have the most consistent quality control. I did get my ass beat by a guy with a Goju background two tournaments ago...his training was definitely hard style, but even he admitted that there was a quality control issue within the system.

Originally Posted by Devil

That's the most Krav thing I've ever read. That's Kravver than a ************...